Luck of the Draw
by Shadowjonathan
Summary: Master Fu pondered in his massage shop, deep in thought about his students. "Oh, Wayzz, how can I help them keep balance?" he asked out loud, more to himself than to his Kwami. "I believe I can help you with that." A man stood in the doorway, hands in his jacket. His hand raised out of a pocket, and he was holding a small box with a butterfly emblem shaped on it, a Miraculous.
1. Spin the wheel

The earth turned.

It spun on its axis, like it had for over 4 billion years, not stopping its forever fall towards the sun, sideways, tangled in a dance of gravity and force, friction dooming to be its downfall… eventually.

 _"…Who are you?"_

The one side of the large crusty ball was darkened, the sun not shining on that face. Yet, it was illuminated, small dots and lines plotted most of its surface, shining in the night.

 _"Well, very technically, not from here."_

If any alien civilisation would look at it, they would think some elder race marked the planet, and not consider it would be the excruciating amount of light humans needed to feel comfortable at night.

Yet, there were some people who just preferred their business in the cold envelope of the darkness.

 _"What do you want?"_

It was summer in paris, the warm hot air of the day slowly cooling through the night, making car fumes and other air pollution more bearable, but still, some people coughed their way back home, late at night.

 _"It's not the fact what I want, it's what_ _ **the universe**_ _wants, more or less. I'm just a messager, an informer."_  
 _"…"_

The massage shop was closed, no lights were on, a bypasser glanced at it, then resumed walking, forgetting, living.

 _"You do realise this is extremely dangerous, right?"_  
 _The man stared down at the elder, his mouth open in thought, then grinned._  
 _"Well, it's not like I'm practically handling a nuclear bomb with this, right?"_  
 _The elder frowned._

Soon the door of the shop opened, someone walked out, bowler hat on, large black trenchcoat sweeping, taking brisk steps in the night.

In an alleyway, two pairs of doors appeared, they opened, and a man stood in the doorway.

"Do you have them?"  
"Yup, at least he seemed to understand there had to be put a stop to this. Come on, let's go, doc."  
A nod, They entered.

The doors closed.

* * *

"Heeya!"

Ladybug swung across one of the buildings across the Eiffel tower, before spotting a ledge halfway to throw her yoyo at before she fell again.

With three more throws and a front-flip, she landed on the top. She stood up and looked around for a moment, detransformed, and promptly sighed.

"Ugh, how much more homework can someone _get_ just a few weeks into the new school year?" She sat down, buried her head in her knees, as her bag slid off her shoulders.

"Don't sulk so much, Marinette! You'll get brow lines long before you become much older!" Tikki giggled, flew around Marinette, and then stopped in front of her.

"As if my superhero duties already not cause just that, I just want some free time here and there…" She buried her face further in her knees.

"Aw, come _on_ , Marinette! You're _Ladybug_ , how often do people get to be that?"

Marinette grabbed her bag from behind her, and fished for a cookie. "Well, with you, at _least_ once every 100 years." She poked a finger at Tikki's non-existent nose (making her giggle), before handing over the cookie.

They both shared a small silence, before Marinette sighed again and lay backwards on the platform. She put her arms behind her head and stared up to the clouds.

Something red entered her view.

"Hey, don't forget what we came here for~" Tikki said in a sing-song voice, waving a geography book from Marinette's bag in front of her eyes.

Marinette frowned, "I _know_ , Tikki, I just… I want to enjoy this, I almost never get to go up here just for fun anymore, or _anything_ else than saving the world for that matter."

Marinette sat up, and grabbed the book, started flipping through it, her mind already adjusting to the long task of staring at her book for hours upon end.

" _Purr_ -leasure to meet you here, Princess!"

"EEK!"

The book flew out of Marinette's hands, and she almost broke her neck as she tried to look behind her. Standing there was Chat Noir, grinning and leaning against the fence of the balcony, tail idly swishing around.

"How're you doing, Princess?" He asks, with that _oh-so-smug_ grin of his.

"Well, I _was_ about to start with my homework, till you dropped in on me." She turned back to her book, intent on just ignoring him for the moment, she has homework to finish, dangit!

Marinette saw him moving in her peripheral vision, but didn't look up. Soon, she saw the belt-end of the tail pull down the top of the book to reveal Chat's grinning face.

Oh, so kitty likes to play, doesn't he?

She stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed. "Why're you here, kitty? Patrol too boring?"

Chat Noir pouted, "In fact, yes, I wanted some fresh air, stretch my tail…" _'Wait, does his tail even need stretchi- nevermind.'_ "…and see the sights. And, I can at least confirm that the last reason I got up here has definitly been fulfilled" he finished while he stared at her.

She blushed a little, did he really just compliment her? No, he was just flirting, as always.

So she grinned back. "Well, _I_ came up here to do my homework, kitty. It's serious, and due tomorrow. So as much as I like to spend time with you-" _'…Did that tail just twitch?'_ "-I need to get on with this."

Chat Noir went silent for a second, before nodding and standing up. He grabbed his staff from his back, swinging it around a few times before laying it on her shoulders. "That's fine, I understand what it's like to have unnecessary work to do."

Marinette giggled, "Yup, at least _you_ are doing some real work over there, out there, with Ladybug. While I'm all here with my stuffy self doing stuffy things in stuffy books." She threw her school book to the floor in emphasis.

Chat Noir nodded, looking distant, before noticing where he was, looking around. "Speaking of here… how did you get up here?"

Marinette froze, oh shit, "Uh, I… Uh…" _'Speak, Marinette! No, wait! Think before you speak!'_ "Uh… Ladybug showed me up here? I mean, she showed me how to get up here?"

Chat raised an eyebrow, not good.

"Uh… she came to me one day before most of the more serious stuff happened with akumas and wanted to spend some time with me? So she showed me how to get up here through that trapdoor over there, yeah."

Phew, smooth, that was _too_ close…

Chat Noir turned around to that trapdoor, then shrugged. "Alright, just know that it's pretty dangerous for people to stay up here, it's pretty high, and unlike the tourist balcony further down, this one doesn't have full-body-height fences around the sides, so be careful."

Marinette blinked, oh yeah, she never noticed that. She never _wanted_ to notice that, not wanting to think of the hundreds of meters that it was going down over the fence _and oh god what if she someday would stand too close to that fence without her Ladybug suit on and he wouldn't be here and-_

"-ette? Marinette?" Chat Noir waved in front of her eyes, she blinked, right. She noticed she was gripping the metal bolts on the balcony just a _little_ bit too tight.

Marinette had actually never mentioned this to anyone, but she has a real fear of heights. Granted, her becoming Ladybug kind of fizzled that away, but it never really went away since being a civilian she was not protected by the suit.

"You kinda spaced out there, Princess, you okay?"

She stared, oh yeah, he was still here too. "Yeah, sorry, I do that sometimes, hehe. Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine."

Marinette looked up, into Chat's eyes, his oh-so-green eyes. He blushed, and looked away, she smiled.

He looks back, a blush still on his face, and smiles too.

"You know, we could-"

 **BRRRRRR!**

"AH, that's my phone!"

Trying to wrestle with her designer pants to get her phone out of her pockets, she slipped it through her fingers.

It flew through the air, one turn, two turns, three turns, before falling back down. Marinette froze horror as it disappeared over the edge, and a black blur coming after it.

A few seconds of silence passed before she was able to tensively move closer to the fence.

"Got it!" Chat Noir hopped over the edge, her phone in his hand. He handed it over.

It was broken, the screen was black, but at least it was not cracked in half, _completely_ , like most phones from this height would be.

"Oh, thank you! I don't know what would've happened if-"

 **BRRRRR!** "Ah!"

She almost let it fall again, it was ringing? Now? Wouldn't the fall have shut off the phone?

Chat Noir laughed. "Seems like the battery and phone itself are still fine, but your screen has a day off!"

Marinette groaned and shut off her phone by holding the power button, she has to ask Alya later on if she can find a cheap place to fix something like this, else she'll go crazy from all the calls she can't answer.

"Shush, kitty, thank you for saving my phone, although that thing will definitly make me crazy later on today…"

Chat Noir snickered, then cleared his throat. "I have to go do some… homework, yeah, same as you. So I'll see you later, _Purr_ -incess!" He teased before jumping off the fence, backwards.

Marinette sighed in contentment, her phone still clutched in her hands.

"You usually have that look for another 10 minutes before you snap out of it, Y'know."

"Tikki!" Marinette shouted, blushing hard. She hid her face in her hands, "Shush, please!"

"What? Because it's true?" She giggled more when Marinette groaned.

"No cookies for you today, little miss." "Hey!" Tikki protested, but Marinette giggled too.

They giggled for a few more minutes and continued teasing eachother, homework forgotten.

* * *

Chat Noir ran across the rooftops, a grin on his face, what a lucky coincidence he met Marinette on top of the Eiffel tower, of all places!

He grabs a chimney, and sits on it, looking over the roofs of paris, dangling one leg downwards.

He shouldn't be doing this with Marinette, he really shouldn't. Whereas Ladybug has already captured his interest in a romantical way, he still finds himself slipping back into a playboy-ish mood around Marinette, flirting and making jokes like that, trying to appeal to her.

He groans as he realises he's thinking about this again, but that doesn't stop his thoughts.

 _'I really should stop seeing her, but I don't want to, she's so… passionate.'_

Chat Noir shook himself out of the reverie, and thought about what he _should_ be doing, which is, ironically, homework.

More specifically, on top of the Arc de Triomphe, as the Eiffel tower is already claimed by a certain blue-black haired girl.

He was just about to jump over to the next chimney when he stopped.

Chat Noir straightened his back, widened his eyes, as his ears suddenly shot up, and he felt a chill down his spine.

Chat sat unmoved, frozen, but there was no sound, nothing, nothing unusual in his sights, or anything like it.

But still…

Something was _wrong_.

Chat Noir had no idea how to explain it, but whatever he felt, it didn't feel like anything good, or well, not _bad_ , but just… not good either.

He shook his head, got into a more relaxed posture, but he couldn't stop his eyes searching the surroundings, scanning for an unseen threat, something moving in the corner of his eyes. Maybe it was that same pull, but he didn't know.

* * *

Taking a step from the Alleyway, an unknown figure sniffed in the air. _'Ah, summer, and daytime too, I should take this Jacket off.'_

And so he did, tucking it under his arm, stepping forward and crossing the street patiently.

The stranger arrived at a small massage shop, but instead of knocking on the front door, he simply walked in.

He got an odd sense of Deja-Vu walking in here, technically, for his second time, for the first time.

 _'Odd way to phrase that, I wonder if Doc has a whole book with these kinds of sentences.'_

He heard some muffled conversation through the door, and stayed as silent as possible, leaning one ear towards the door.

 _"Oh, Wayzz, Ladybug and Chat Noir are keeping every akuma at bay, but how can the balance be kept? Sooner or later they'd…"_ The man at the other side of the door stopped talking, and then just sighed.

The stranger adjusted the grip on his vest, patted his pocket, and then opened the door.

On the other side, an elder man turned around, looking at the door. "Welcome, how can I help you, sir?"

The stranger grinned mysteriously, "Well technically, that is indeed the question, but it should be me asking that, instead."

He rummaged through his pockets, and grabbed a small darkbrown hexagon-shaped box, holding it out towards the elder, who had become intensely alert all of the sudden.

"How can I help _you_ , Master Fu?"


	2. Influence

Fu stood in silence, staring at the box, but then squinted and looked back up to the stranger, who kept his gaze patient as the atmosphere got more tense.

"Who are you?" Fu asked, the stranger lowered the box and shrugged, "Well, very technically, not from he- actually, no, I'm just here for this box."

Fu did not retort at that, or speak at all, he just stared at the box and the stranger's face. Then he asked a second question.

"Why are you showing me this box?" He said, the stranger blinked, then smiled. "I'm just following up on a request, you can say the 'universe' has sent me, or something."

Fu nodded, then he turned around.

"It's alright, Wayzz, you can come out."

Silence.

"Wayzz?" Fu walked over to the Gramophone, leaving the stranger standing on his porch.

"M-Master Fu, do you really think we can trust him?" A reluctant voice asked Fu, from within the horn.

Fu's eyebrows shot up. "I do think so, why?"

Wayzz slowly emerged from the horn, eyes on the stranger, who blinked at the sight of the new Kwami. "Because- Because I can _feel_ something different about him."

"Me?" The stranger asked, hand gesturing to himself, and the other holding up the Jewel box, "I think you're probably feeling this, the butterfly Miraculous." He said with a wave of the box.

Wayzz gasped, "N-Nooroo?" He whispered, and then suddenly shot up to the Jewel box.

"Woah woah WOAH! WAIT!" The stranger shouted, pulling back the box and holding the other hand up to stop the Kwami, but it was too late, the moment Wayzz touched the jewel box, the room was flooded in a flash of white and blue.

Once Fu opened his eyes again and blinked a few times, Wayzz was floating a few meters away from the stranger, whom was…

Fried.

That was the best way to explain it. There was smoke was coming off his clothes, and in some places, some burn marks had emerged, and his hair was in the fritz.

"DAMMIT! I _just_ did my hair for this occasion this morning, evening, whatever, and now it's a mess!" He started wiping through his hair for a moment before pouting and looking down at the Kwami.

"Please, _please_ do not touch stuff from parallel universes again, Wayzz, it always ends in _this_ mess, **always**." And continued to (try and) save his hair.

Fu blinked at this, but Wayzz was faster with the obvious question. "Parallel universe?"

The stranger snorted. "Yes, or alternate realities, they're basically the same. You Kwamis are energy creatures, you are more sensitive and vulnerable to displaced objects, and so you just created an electric shock charge by touching it." He said matter-of-factly, giving up on his hair.

Fu blinked again, well, this was certainly a major turn of events. "Excuse me, young man, but what did you mean when you said that this Miraculous is from another universe?" If that was true, then why…

The stranger nodded, which bounced his new loose hair up and down. "Oh yeah, right. Basically, this box is from another universe. That universe, compared to this one, is at peace… relatively. There you- _he_ \- you did not lose the butterfly Miraculous when you ran away, Fu." The stranger explained, looking pointily at Fu at the last statement.

Who had to do a double-take. Not in years, _years_ he had not had that subject brought up, the last time it was touched upon was when he gifted the two Miraculouses to two young promising heroes. But up until now, he had not tried to broach that subject again. How could he know of it?

"That world was- _is_ peaceful, no hawkmoth, no danger, no miraculous heroes in Paris." The stranger continued, sadly grinning at the last one.

"So that's why we picked that world, because it had no major disbalance if we basically rented this thing from over there." He waved the Jewel box around.

Fu was filled with questions, and he took a moment to choose one. "You mentioned 'we' earlier, and you sound like this is not your home… universe, am I correct?"

The stranger looked confused for a second, then widened his eyes. "Oh nonono, I haven't been home for a while now, been travelling with the doc a lot- don't ask who he is, I have frankly still no idea- and hopping here and there, till we got into the usual business of being called up by someone who needed our help." He paced around the room, the corners of Fu's mouth starting to twitch. This young man was starting to become quite interesting.

The stranger stopped and waved his hands around. "And I would've been here today, three days today, today… uh, let me try that again. If we wouldn't have wasted three _days_ almost fighting the guy who called us up- scratch that, I'm not even sure he has genders- _I_ would've been here much earlier." He finished, looking at Fu's expression, he had grabbed a set of tea, and started brewing it while the young man in front of him spilled some rants. He indeed took a deep breath through his teeth as he realised something. "Right, that did not explain anything, let's try again…"

Fu stuck his hand up, in a patient smile and eyebrows raised in curiosity. "Tell me, _who_ was it who sent you to us?"

He looked troubled as Fu finished that question. "Uhm… I'm actually not supposed to say that, what he _did_ say to us was what to do and when, and where, and I actually want to get to the most important part of my story, which is…"

He stopped pacing suddenly and stood in the middle of the room, fishing something from his pockets, a piece of paper. He began to read it.

"'Master Fu, what you realised today is only the tip of the iceberg from what the problem actually is, if something hadn't happen in time, the heroes would've collapsed in a year, give or take a month, and Hawkmoth would not be able to deal with the power he has stolen, and plunge a large part of the universe into darkness with his mistake.'" The stranger pocketed away the paper in front of a pale Fu and shrugged. "He was always so crypi- hey, are you okay, sir?" He stopped when he saw Fu.

Fu however took a small moment to catch his breath. "Yes, I think I am, did your… _friend_ say something about the Miraculous you're holding?"

"Nope, only that I'm supposed to give this speech _and_ give the box to you on this particular day, time, and place, nothing else."

"I see."

Fu sat down, and crossed his legs, he closed his eyes, while the young stranger blinked at him and wandered his eyes around the room. When not finding a chair, he sighed and sat down the way Fu did.

Fu smiled. "Do you have any idea what a Miraculous wielder is, uh…" Fu realised suddenly he didn't know the man's name.

"Jack, just call me Jack." He grinned widely, then scrunched his nose, "Not the other Jack, though, I'm not immortal."

Fu took a few moments to think about that comment, but ultimately ignored it, then threw a questioning glance at Jack.

"Huh? Oh, uh… well, I don't really come from worlds that have superheroes, although that one time in New York was awesome, with _Thor_ of all people you can meet!" He finished with a small grin, then slapped himself and groaned. "Uh, no, I don't know much of Miraculouses, Doc says they're a special brand of super, but he says that with all kinds of supers."

Fu nodded, then placed a hand on the jewel box on the table. He kept staring at it while Jack raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"Did this 'doc' of yours say how long you'll be staying here?"

Jack opened his mouth but closed it when he looked away in a frown. "Actually, now that you mention it, he had not said a word about that, he usually does that when we… stay… here…" Realisation flashed across his face and he turned his head towards the widely smiling Master Fu.

Whom grabbed the box with two hands on either side, and shifted it across the table towards Jack, who widened his eyes at it.

Then promptly groaned and let his face fall into his lap. "Oh come _on_ , I thought this would be a quick job, not a full-on integration or something, now I need a new passport, a new apartment, a job, a-"

"Jack" Fu interrupted him and kept his hand on the box. "Just take the Miraculous, if you trust your friend's judgement, then I think you'll just do fine."

Jack stared at the Guardian, and then nodded, "Yeah, you're right, I know that _not_ trusting a guy like that will only bite me back in the-"

Fu held both his hands up, chuckling, "That's quite enough. Now, do you know how to go from here?" He looked at Jack expectantly.

Jack nodded, "Yeah… believe me or not, this kind of thing has happened before, _a lot_ , this is just a little unexpected."

Fu chuckled a bit. "Can ask you one last thing?"

"Sure, go ahead." Jack said with a dismissive gesture.

"Do you have a last name?"

Jack blinked. "No, well, not any that I can use here, why?"

Fu shrugged playfully, "I may have one you would like."

"And which would that be?"

"… _'d'Etoires'_ "

* * *

Marinette was sketching, she loved doing it, making new designs, or just draw whatever comes to mind by inspirations around her. It calmed her down, she usually does it as an exercise after a long day of school, like right now.

However, she was distracted as something red entered and exited her vision right in front of her, and paused her newest jacket design to see Tikki absently floating around her room.

Marinette knows Tikki almost never does this, as Tikki is quickly onto something and can confront her about it, or resume her routine of glancing over old books and magazines, so seeing her- well- _pace_ around the room like this is unusual.

Marinette turns around and hangs one arm off the seat, the other one still holding her pencil. "Hey, Tikki?" The kwami turns around and stops mid-air, "Is everything alright?"

Tikki pursed her lips, something Marinette has never seen her do, and then sighs, limping her arms and lowering her head as in defeat. "I don't know, Marinette… There's something strange in the air ever since we came back here."

"Something strange?" Marinette blinks and turns around her chair, "What kind of strange? Is there something in the air? A gas?"

"No, not that, I mean energy-wise."

Marinette blinks again. "Eh?"

"You _do_ know we Kwamis are energy creatures, right?"

Marinette nodded. "So what do you mean when you say something is off energy-wise?"

"Well… You know when you're in a lab, or in some power plant, and the air feels full of static?" A nod, "Well, it's like that all the time with energy, but now it feels 'different' from normal, almost like there's too much of it, too much of one kind of energy?"

"What kind of energy?"

Tikki hummed for a second. "Some kind of positive energy, I'm not sure though, it feels _really_ weird for some reason."

Marinette nodded, and then shot her head up. "Maybe we should go to Master Fu to talk about this!"

"Good idea!"

Marinette grabbed her phone- wait. "Crap! My phone is still broken!" She said as she held her star-scarred screen in front of her.

Tikki giggled. "Well, you maybe shouldn't have thrown it off the highest tower in Paris in front of your crush, if you wanted to use it now." She said teasingly.

"Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed with a blush as Tikki giggled more.

"Just teasing, Marinette, I know you two are in love."

"We are not in- Okay, that's it, no cookies for a week."

That did not do anything, as Marinette just hid her flustered face underneath two hands, while Tikki just grabbed a cookie from the jar, still giggling.

Marinette sighed, and looked up at bedside, and then realised what time it is. "Merde, It's 8 PM already."

After a quick video call with Alya about her phone, she had an appointment tomorrow around lunch for her phone to be repaired, but not before her best friend poked some fun after the fact that she "just slipped it through my fingers".

After finishing her homework and kissing her parents goodnight, she arrived in her bed, absent-mindedly patting Tikki in her hands while she thought about what she had said.

"Does it mean anything, though?"

"What?"

Marinette sat up in her bed, and looked at Tikki. "The whole energy thing, does it actually mean something, or is it just…" She waved her hand around, "Nothing to worry about?"

Tikki looked down and drooped her antennas a little, pouting while frowning, which was something she often does when deep in thought, (and what made her look very cute, in Marinette's opinion).

"I think this is going to change many things?"

Marinette did not expect that answer, and so took a moment to digest that.

"How exactly?"

"I don't know," Tikki responded, while shaking her head, "But I do know it is already changing the makeup- everything- of the energetical forces, so whatever will happen, it will be change, a lot of it."

Marinette looked away, she did not really like change that much, mostly if it involved her and her friends, but then again, it was needed for the world to spin.

She sighed, and pulled Tikki to her chest, and hugged her. "Well, if anything is sure to not change, it'll be me going to school, and you being one of my best friends, Tikki."

Tikki hummed. "Thank you, Marinette."

And so they drifted off to sleep, together.

* * *

 **AN: Some history about Jack (my OC):**

 _I have to admit he's my excuse to put parts of myself in the story, as that gives me the most motivation, but in return, I've thought long and hard about how to make it possible, and here it is:_

 _He's basically a cranky assistant of the Doctor (yes, doctor who), but as that element most gets to a minimum and not a lot of DW stuff shows, i can keep it in the genre I'm writing the story in. Him having "access" to the Doctor means that his appearances everywhere in every universe (or whatever) is canon and can be explained._

 _He's just a dude in a story, the only suspense of disbelief you have to have with him is the fact he popped up in a universe, that's all, for the rest, he'll be very chill._


End file.
